This week, Margaret Drabble and Joe Swift talk about the relationship between literature and gardening; and a new short-story collection from Margaret Atwood.
This week, we examine the highs and very many lows of the writing life. Tom Seymour Evans explores a disquieting biography of crime writer James Ellroy, and Stephen Marche shines a light into the abyss of literary failure in his new book.
‘Love Me Fierce in Danger: The Life of James Ellroy’ by Steven Powell
In an extract from Lawcraft, published by TLS Books last month, Geoffrey Robertson explains how Russian oligarchs use British courts to close down investigative journalism.
This week, Richard Norton-Taylor braves the terrifying world of cyberattacks and their brutal cost; and Lucasta Miller on an intriguing collection of 19th-century commonplace books.
'Pegasus: The Story of the World’s Most Dangerous Spyware’ by Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud
‘Striking Back: The End of Peace in Cyberspace - and How to Restore It’ by Lucas Kello
The work of scholar and collector William St Clair
This week, Elizabeth Dearnley hunts for the hags, fairies and wandering women of the pagan past; and Ruth Scurr on a thrilling final book from the celebrated journalist Janet Malcolm.
‘Queens of the Wild: Pagan Goddesses In Christian Europe’ by Ronald Hutton
‘Still Pictures: On Photography and Memory’ by Janet Malcolm
This week, Gabriel Roberts explores the past, present and - we very much hope - the future of bioabundance in animal species; and novelist Gwendoline Riley takes us into the affecting and brutally funny world of Michael Bracewell’s return to fiction after 21 years.
This week, Lucy Lethbridge explains what a curate's eye is, and how ideas of British cooking range from Aga fantasies to bacon butties; and J. S. Barnes takes us to the dark side of the festive season, via Dickens and M. R. James....
'The British Cookbook: Authentic home cooking recipes from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland' by Ben Mervis
'To Be Read At Dusk: Dickens, ghosts and the supernatural', Charles Dickens Museum, London, until March 5, 2023
'The Witch Farm', BBC Radio 4 and Sounds
'The Treasure of Abbot Thomas', Nunkie Theatre Company, December 24, live online
Simon McBurney, the artistic director of the endlessly innovative and influential Complicité theatre company, talks to Lucy Dallas about two of their major new projects.
This week, we hear how the music-hall star Josephine Baker became a secret agent; and we talk to Simon McBurney of Complicité theatre company, about their haunting audio production of Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising.
'The Flame of Resistance' by Damien Lewis
'The Dark Is Rising' by Susan Cooper, BBC World Service, December 20
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